‘India Citizens’ Report on MDGs’ Release Event, 7 January 2008, New Delhi

The ‘Citizens’ Report on the MDGs’ was released at the UNDP Hall, New Delhi among representatives of civil society and the UN. Mani Shankar Aiyar,  Union Minister for Panchayati Raj & Youth Affairs and Salil Shetty (Global Director of the UN Millennium Campaign – New York) addressed the gathering on this occasion.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of developmental targets  adopted at the turn of the century by 189 member countries of the United Nations  as part of a global pact to end extreme poverty and hunger, and ensure greater access to health, education, equality and peace in the world by 2015.

Speaking before the release, Salil Shetty (Global Director of the UN Millennium Campaign – New York) said, “India’s progress on critical indicators such as  Maternal & Infant Mortality, Food Security, School Enrollment and Retention, and  Universal Access to Water & Sanitation will determine if the world as a whole  will achieve the MDGs. Today the country has all the resources required to end  extreme poverty and social exclusion. The people of India must act together to  ensure that the political will to put these resources to action is also harnessed.”                      

The India Citizens’ Report on the MDGs has been published by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, which is a network of over 3000 development organizations across 23 states working to hold the government accountable to meet the MDGs and National Development Goals. The report provides an overview on the achievement of the MDGs in India, as well as focused reviews from the lens of socially disadvantaged groups such as Dalits, Denotified Tribes and Muslim Minorities; and across 10 states, namely Orissa, West Bengal, Himachal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

“This report is the result of a concerted effort across civil society groups to track India’s progress on the MDGs. We are aggrieved to find that despite being on the fast track to economic progress, India still accounts for the highest   number of maternal deaths in the world. India has a Maternal Mortality Rate of 301 deaths per 100,000 live births, against an average of 20 deaths in developed countries. Yet India spends under 1% of its GDP on public expenditure for Health – less than even countries like Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone,” said Jagadananda (Convenor, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan).

The report is available here.